Annalee Newitz 🍜Feb 15, 2023
I'm proud to be one of the many
New York Times contributors who signed this letter calling for the paper to stop its biased and often downright hateful coverage of trans issues. http://nytletter.com #transrights
NYT Contributors’ Letter

mrkvmFeb 15, 2023
Show threadAnnalee Newitz 🍜
Though some coverage claims this is a letter from exclusively trans contributors, I want to point out that plenty of cis folks signed on. Calling it a letter "from trans people" is yet another example of trying to frame this as some kind of special interest group issue rather than a matter of human rights.
Feb 15, 2023 at 6:34pmWeb
Show threadlee Feb 15, 2023
@oldladyplays this is probably the reasoning behind that particular verbiage of "trans, non-binary, and cis" you were asking after
Show threadPatrick Nielsen HaydenFeb 16, 2023
@annaleen I signed it midday yesterday (as a “media professional” or whatever their term was). As of this morning my name still hasn’t showed up, which suggests that they’re getting a big wave of further co-signers.
Show threadAnnalee Newitz 🍜Feb 16, 2023
@pnh good to hear!
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 16, 2023
@annaleen @pnh I'm conflicted over whether (as a non-American who has never written for the NYTimes and doesn't purchase or read it either, but who considers himself a trans ally) I should sign the letter …
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 16, 2023
@annaleen @pnh If someone starts such a letter to The Guardian I'm totally going to be signing it. But that's on my home turf. (Ahem.)
Show threadLaura J MixonFeb 18, 2023
@cstross my take, FWIW: if you read NYT articles or opinions you fit the criteria, and your support would be welcome. The paper’s reach—and thus the harm it perpetuates with its anti-trans bias—extends well beyond US borders.
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 18, 2023
@LauraJMG The NYT is paywalled so I don't generally read them, that's the thing. (I refuse to pay a subscription to a transphobic media outlet—that's why I cancelled my Guardian subscription.)
Show threadLaura J MixonFeb 18, 2023
@cstross I see your dilemma.
Show threadSpeakerToManagersFeb 16, 2023

@cstross @annaleen @pnh
I don’t read it often because of the paywall, and I haven’t subscribed in some years, but I signed as someone concerned for 60 years* about the bias of the paper and its willingness to publish unchecked assertions.

* look up the Tonkin Gulf Incident which was used as a casus belli for the Vietnam War if you’re curious what first started my concern.

Show threadSpeakerToManagersFeb 16, 2023
@pnh @annaleen
I signed it last night and my name hasn’t been added to the list yet, but then they say there are over 30,000 signers.
Show threadtoa5tFeb 17, 2023
@annaleen @donmelton I signed it. I’m as vis as they come, but I fight for the rights of all. Very fed up with lazy journalists
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 18, 2023

@annaleen Trans rights are a reliable miner's canary for human rights: if they're attacked, the invisible toxic cloud is coming for everyone else very soon. (They're not the only signal that human rights are under attack, but they're a very sensitive one and I've never heard of a major anti-rights offensive that didn't attack trans people as well as whoever the ostensible target was.) So: solidarity!

(Also I have trans friends, some of them going back 40 years, and they don't need that shit.)

Show threadThe Pelagic StreetlightsFeb 18, 2023
@cstross @annaleen
a dear friend recently pointed out that this is true of furries as well.
Show threadjust adrienneFeb 18, 2023
@ThePelagicStreetlights @cstross @annaleen To some extent that's a second-order effect, because a LOT of furries are also queer and/or trans, and it's a very queer-friendly subculture just in general.
Show threadJacoboFeb 18, 2023
@cstross @annaleen What white dudes forget when they jump on the hate bandwagon is that once the monster that is Fascism eats political prisoners, the intelligentsia, gay people, trans people, people of color, women, and all the other minorities, it will then eat them too. Fascism is basically anti-humanism incarnate, and will cause human extinction. It thrives by a kind of necromancy, that uses bigotry to fuel itself. Fascism always has to attack something in the end. This is a historical law.
Show thread@infosec_jcp 🐈🃏 done differentlyFeb 18, 2023

@annaleen

Human Rights fight for Equality is a Fight for Everyones' Human Rights.